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the annotated pilgrim, part 3

  • Oct. 3rd, 2006 at 6:02 PM
kitties
I wrote this up a while ago, so maybe if I clean it up and post it, it'll encourage me to continue.

The Annotated Pilgrim™

In which I go through each volume and, uh, annotate.

NOTE: I will make this more official one day, maybe. Currently it is a work in progress.

SPOILERS FOLLOW



VOLUME 2: SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD

PART 1


The title page is an homage to the title screen of Bonk’s Adventure.


The New Kid
The extended flashback which opens the book is kind of an appetizer to the second volume. Scott’s aborted fight with the bullies deflates your expectations, then you get lulled into the rhythm of the school scenes until you’re suddenly jarred out of it by the jump into River City Ransom territory (including a last boss called Simon). That’s the idea, anyway. I like the ambiguity of the flashback, and I don’t want to elaborate on it too much.

Some specific notes within the flashback:

"St. Joel’s" and "Benvie Tech", the rival schools, are named after the two leads from the dearly departed band Thrush Hermit (Joel Plaskett and Rob Benvie). I also have a friend named Joel who hails from Northern Ontario and this sequence is a bit of a nod in his direction. The actual exterior of St. Joel’s is referenced from a school in downtown Toronto, so I apologize for that. I just thought it was interesting-looking.

012-sheepScott’s high school basement is based on my parents’ house, where I lived during high school. His family is likewise loosely based on mine, including the dog (our old family dog, Princess, died in 2003). In one panel you can almost see that the game on-screen is Sonic & Knuckles, which shortly becomes the name of their band.

While working on this part, I suddenly vaguely remembered drawing idiotic little sheep in the 7th grade, so I stuck that in as Scott’s miraculous drawing ability.

You Suck, Surprising No-One
The bit where the panels get smaller and smaller was something I sort of saw in a manga one time and wanted to put to my own use. If you can’t read the very last one, he’s saying “I am rubber, you are glue” which is (apart from a generic comeback) kind of a Monkey Island thing.

013-sonicboomI tried to put Scott in the skull shirt when bad stuff was about to happen. Here he breaks up with Knives. It happens in a record store called Sonic Boom, which is a real place near the corner of Bloor & Bathurst. When she invites him for dinner, he says “for Chinese food?” which is in my mind hilarious, in a racially-insensitive way. “Um, listen, I think we should break up or whatever” was one of the earlier lines I wrote, probably during Volume 1. I had some trouble laying this scene out, but I think in the end it turned out pretty well. The pages immediately after he says the line are at least slightly devastating, I hope.

The Bass Line From Final Fantasy Two
014-basslineAs many of you know, the intro to the bass line from Final Fantasy one through six (and nine) is ludicrously simple. The panel of Scott playing it is consciously influenced by Harold Sakuichi’s great manga, BECK.

I didn’t think about this at first, but “Rammy” is also the name of Um Jammer Lammy’s evil twin. The art style of Parappa the Rapper and Um Jammer Lammy (by the great Rodney Alan Greenblat) was obviously an influence on that of Scott Pilgrim, so consider it an unconscious homage.

Scott hates getting his hair cut because I hate getting my hair cut. (Not totally true – I have a reliable hairdresser now. I’m just constantly reluctant to go.) Also, in this scene we briefly see that he’s wearing a “Kraft” shirt, which used to be my favourite brand of peanut butter. (As of 2006 I eat the all-natural just-peanuts kind and have lost my brand loyalty.) That nefarious reading lamp reappears at the end of the scene, too.

015-fishKim’s Morning
Her apartment is modeled on my sister’s old place on Bathurst. I think this scene is the first time I used a ruler to draw straight lines in this series. Shock! All those fish prints were totally present in my reference photos, I didn’t make them up. No-Account Video is lazily modeled on Suspect Video (the Markham St location). Full disclosure: it was Suspect Video in the script, but when I wanted to take reference photos they wouldn’t let me, so I changed the name and didn’t make the location terribly distinct.

Comments

[info]xoshua wrote:
Oct. 3rd, 2006 09:21 pm (UTC)
freakin' sweet!
[info]flamingwingnut wrote:
Oct. 3rd, 2006 09:41 pm (UTC)
cool. this is neat stuff.
[info]peanutismint wrote:
Oct. 3rd, 2006 09:56 pm (UTC)
Hahaha you know, I noticed that Ramona shared a nickname with the popular grunge-rock rival of Lammy, but I didn't factor it into reality on account of it being such a bizzare and thin connection! I hope SP4 contains an evil ex boy/girlfriend who can only be beaten through a rhythm-based button pressing technique...
[info]studiojfish wrote:
Oct. 3rd, 2006 10:27 pm (UTC)
You totally get bumped up about ten fold for doing stuff like this. I can only hope that when I start to really write my own works and construct my own books that I think in this same mentality. I feel like if I made stuff now, people would ask where I got stuff from and I'd go "Duuuuh I dunno???".

Thanks for sharing all the special stuff that makes Scott Pilgrim. It's a priviledge to see what goes on behind the book.
[info]marvelousboy wrote:
Oct. 3rd, 2006 10:33 pm (UTC)
I took some small nerdy pleasure, not only in recognizing the 'Bonk's Adventure' logo, but also in still owning the game and still having a Turbo Grafx 16 hooked up to my TV.
[info]pirate_club wrote:
Oct. 3rd, 2006 10:41 pm (UTC)
This is fun! I love reading this kind of DVD commentary stuff. It's a lot of work for you, I'm sure. But we appreciate it.
[info]daveoneill wrote:
Oct. 3rd, 2006 11:11 pm (UTC)
I love reading this stuff man, keep it up
[info]sicilianwhore wrote:
Oct. 3rd, 2006 11:28 pm (UTC)
yep.
More. More like this.
[info]khy wrote:
Oct. 4th, 2006 12:08 am (UTC)
i definitely played Bonk's on the PC using some romz last month.

these are extremely interesting to read!
[info]foolykonno3 wrote:
Oct. 4th, 2006 01:29 am (UTC)
TEH AWESOME
Man, Volume 2 is definitely my favorite volume of Scott Pilgrim, especially because of the River City homage.

I knew the opening picture was based off of some game, but I couldn't quite place it.

Beck is probably my favorite manga, (besides Gantz, Blame, Biomega, Dorohedoro, etc.)so it's pretty awesome to find out that it was kinda "recognized" in Scott Pilgrim.
[info]thomasav wrote:
Oct. 4th, 2006 01:53 am (UTC)
Informative... and fun... it's Funformative.
[info]madlycool wrote:
Oct. 4th, 2006 02:03 am (UTC)
They wouldn't let you take pictures? Talk about 'suspect'...
[info]destroyerzooey wrote:
Oct. 4th, 2006 02:07 am (UTC)
yeah, so i stopped renting movies there! and not just because I moved 2200 km away or anything.
[info]iworkinasaloon wrote:
Oct. 4th, 2006 03:21 am (UTC)
Thank you.
[info]retrogradeheart wrote:
Oct. 4th, 2006 03:40 am (UTC)
"I had sexual relations with your mother! Your mother was not very good in bed!" became a regular insult around my friends and I in Milwaukee once I made everyone read the books.

Has anyone ever mentioned that the bassist from Art Brut, right now on tour, looks just like Ramona Flowers? She has the hair from the book 2 cover and dresses just like her.
[info]destroyerzooey wrote:
Oct. 5th, 2006 01:19 am (UTC)
someone should show me a picture of this person.
[info]destroyerzooey wrote:
Oct. 5th, 2006 01:21 am (UTC)
ok, i found some pics and she plays a ricky quite similar to Scott's too, which is interesting...
[info]thewolf wrote:
Oct. 4th, 2006 03:50 am (UTC)
bonks adventure, rock.
[info]puffybush wrote:
Oct. 4th, 2006 07:15 am (UTC)
maggie gyllenhaal just named her baby ramona. i bet she's a fan.
[info]mercuryglass wrote:
Oct. 4th, 2006 07:22 am (UTC)
dang, i thought scott's sheep-drawing ability was a reference to the little prince.
[info]mavetgoth wrote:
Oct. 4th, 2006 08:59 am (UTC)
that's excellent.
I still think it's disturbing that I look like knives.
avatar love!!
[info]ministerofevil wrote:
Oct. 4th, 2006 11:23 am (UTC)
The Monkey Island references were one of the reasons i picked the book up in the first place :D I salute you!
[info]jamietucker_com wrote:
Oct. 4th, 2006 12:36 pm (UTC)
I suspected it was suspect
[info]colonelxonik wrote:
Oct. 4th, 2006 03:40 pm (UTC)
Yeah! The Beck manga is so very good. I didn't catch the reference, but I think that's pretty Kickin' Rad(TM) that you envisioned it that way.
[info]justjus wrote:
Oct. 5th, 2006 01:56 am (UTC)
I love these posts so much, they make the books somehow even more enjoyable.
[info]sxyblkmn wrote:
Nov. 12th, 2006 03:22 am (UTC)
i just picked up the first two volumes of Scott Pilgrim (thanks to some folks recommending it on The Engine and i love it!

need to track down vol. 3 now. (hard to find way down here in jackson, ms) ;)

just thought that needed to be said

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